Cannoncourt Farm Pit, Furze Platt, located on the right bank of the Thames on the outskirts of Maidenhead, was opened for gravel extraction in the early twentieth century (Wymer 1968; Cranshaw 1983). Lewellyn Treacher amassed a large collection from quarrymen between 1909 and 1931, while detailed investigations were conducted by A.D. Lacaille during the 1930’s (Lacaille 1940; 1960). Sections were subsequently opened in 1953 by Wymer (1968) and in 1987 by Harding et al. (1991). The site was once the centre of a controversy regarding the number of Thames terraces in the region, with two separate terraces eventually being accepted — the Boyn Hill and Lynch Hill — with the Cannoncourt Farm Pit being the reference site for the Lynch Hill Gravels (Hare 1947; Gibbard 1985), a formation now firmly correlated by numerous proxies with the MIS 10–9–8 climatic cycle (Bridgland 1994).

The geology at the site comprises ~4m of bedded, upwardly-fining fluvial gravel overlying Upper Chalk at 42m above Ordnance Datum (Bridgland 1994). The upper gravel layers are channelled and capped by a variable thickness of sandy, silty-clay which often penetrate the gravel through solution pipes. The lowest 1.5m are often very coarse, with most of the artefacts coming from these beds. (Lacaille 1940; Wymer 1968). Artefacts nearest the base seem to be larger than those further up—the famous ‘giant’ being recovered from near the bottom of the gravel. Few faunal remains were found, the only recorded specimens being an antler of Megaloceros giganticus and a molar of Palaeoloxodon antiquus (Wymer 1968).

Bridgland, D.R. 1994. Quaternary of the Thames. London: Chapman and Hall.

Cranshaw, S. 1983. Handaxes and Cleavers: Selected English Acheulean Industries. BAR British Series 113. Oxfords: Archaeopress.

Gibbard, P.L. 1985. The Pleistocene History of the Middle Thames Valley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Harding, P. Bridgland, D.R & Madgett, P.A. 1991. Recent investigations of Pleistocene sediments near Maidenhead, Berkshire, and their archaeological content. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 102: 25–53.

Hare, F.K. 1947. The geomorphology of a part of the Middle Thames. Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association 58: 294–339.

Lacaille, A.D. 1940. The Palaeoliths from the gravels of the Lower Boyn Hill Terrace around Maidenhead. Antiquaries Journal 20: 245–271.

Lacaille, A.D. 1960 The Palaeoliths of Boyn Hill, Maidenhead. Antiquaries Journal 41: 154–185.

Wymer, J. 1968. Lower Palaeolithic Archaeology in Britain as represented by the Thames Valley. London: John Baker.